


Advise and Consent

by ceralynn



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-18 03:09:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3553808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceralynn/pseuds/ceralynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mac leads a double life as a detective</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Untethered

**Author's Note:**

> I owe everything about this premise to [noirsunny](noirsunny.tumblr.com) and if you aren't already following them, please love yourself and follow already.

Dennis is sitting in absolute silence when when the door bursts open, Mac barreling in like he's on fire. The slam of the door makes him jump out of his skin, sets his heart racing as he glares at the source of the disruption.

"What the hell, man?!"

Mac only stares for a moment, unreadable, like a puppy deciding to do something he's been trained not to before he rushes forward, catching Dennis' face in his hands and kissing him, hard. Dennis doesn't react, doesn't even breathe until Mac pulls away and he remembers that air exists for a reason. He's dreamed of this moment, of Mac coming to terms with his feelings, with their feelings, admitting finally what they mean to one another—

"We have to go."

The words reach Dennis' ears like a second language, like something he has to translate before it'll stick.

"It isn't safe here," Mac continues. "We have to leave and we have to leave _tonight_."

"Not safe?" Dennis frowns. "I mean, yeah, we've gotten mugged once or twice, but shit, it's not Atlantic City. It's not Camden."

"That's not what I mean." Mac sighs, finally releasing his grip on Dennis' confused face and standing up straight. He says nothing for several seconds as the concern in Dennis' eyes mounts.

"Dennis, I've been lying to you," he begins. "I'm a federal agent. I was assigned to this case ten years ago to obtain evidence against Frank Reynolds, and I don't know how, but he's onto me. I know what he's capable of, Dennis. We can't stay here. It isn't safe."

The concern drains from Dennis' expression but the abject confusion remains.

"Are you drunk?"

"What?"

"What exactly have you and Charlie been inhaling? Fucking paint thinner?"

"Dennis, I'm not drunk," he says firmly. "I'm not high. And I'm not making this up. I know it's jarring, but I promise you, I'm telling you the truth."

"Why do I have to leave with you?"

Mac blinks. "What do you mean?"

"If you're not making this up, if this little story is true, why would I have to leave?" Dennis stands at this point, attempting to level Mac with his gaze. "I don't have or even know of any of this evidence. I'm not complicit in this scheme at all. You're the only one in danger. So why would I have to go with you?"

Mac feels his heart splintering, because he thought he made that clear from the start. He thought it was the very first thing he'd made clear upon bounding into the apartment.

"Dennis.. I can't leave you here," he says, voice weak. "I couldn't live with myself. I couldn't.. be okay not knowing what's happened to you."

"What would happen to me?"

"I don't know and that's why I can't leave you!" Dennis could swear he sees tears in Mac's eyes. "I've never felt this way about another person, Dennis. I've forgotten my mission so many times. I love being around you, I.."

Mac stops only for a moment, shakes his head.

"I know what my professional purpose is here. But you.. you give me purpose outside of that. Bigger than that."

Mac touches Dennis' arm, trying to be soothing, grounding but it settles him far more than it settles Dennis.

"We'll get into Witness Protection," he presses on. "Move out to Portland on the government's dime. If you don't feel the same way I do, it's fine. You can leave. I have money. I'll get you started anywhere you want to live away from me, but I cannot, _cannot_ leave you here."

Dennis doesn't speak for a while, words coming slowly when he finds them.

"I swear to god, Mac, if this some kind of elabourate prank, I will actually kill you."

"And you'd be absolutely justified in doing that." Mac brings his free hand up to touch Dennis' face and that radiant devotion shines in his eyes again, that quality that Dennis, as emotionally stunted as he is, cannot mistake for anything but love. "But I swear to you, I am telling the truth. I would not make this up."

Dennis considers it. Really considers it. There isn't much tethering him to Philly. His job, he supposes. His family. But Frank isn't really his father, and what is Dee to him, anyway? The image of her, made up so beautifully, smiling as she listens to his declarations of love, then kicking him in the face down the runway—

"Okay." He looks to Mac's eyes, unaware he'd ever looked away. "Okay. I'll go with you."

Mac's heart soars and he wants to pull Dennis into his arms but they've wasted so much time already, he simply lets Dennis move past him and begin to pack a suitcase.

He doesn't begin to contemplate Mac's feelings, only the ways he'll dispose of the body if they get out to Ohio and Mac screams, "PSYCHE!"


	2. Headlights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Dennis hit the road

Dennis is silent in the car. Not the Range Rover. Mac insisted it was too traceable, too obviating, that the safer bet was a rental car, even if it was well below Dennis' standards. It feels too small, the metal around them too thin, and it's not putting his mind at ease at all that he isn't the one the driving.

He keeps expecting Mac to stop, to smile slowly, pull the car over, begin laughing and never stop. He almost welcomes the thought of it, of Mac, the Mac he's always known, gleefully decrying, "You should have seen your face!" But it never comes. And the more distance they put between themselves and the city of their birth, the more settled Dennis becomes in his new reality.

"Do you remember when I first got that car?" He'll never see the Range Rover again, and that hurts the most in this moment. "Dee burst into tears when she realised it wasn't for her. I mean, ugly sobbing. Just gross."

Mac says nothing but nods, listening.

"Mom didn't care," he goes on. "And I remember Dad— _Frank_ —saying something about how women couldn't drive anyway. That he wasn't buying her a car just so she could go out and wreck it."

Mac still can't see where exactly Dennis is headed with this, if he's headed anywhere at all.

"I was so jealous of you when you got that car," he says finally. "But it wasn't about the car. Not really. Even if we'd had money, I don't think my dad would have ever done that for me."

"How the hell did you get to be a federal agent, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, your dad is a criminal. He's a million times the criminal that my dad is. That Frank is." Dennis cannot believe that after eight years he's slipping back into this shitty habit. "How the hell did you wind up as a fucking secret agent, or whatever?"

"The government really wants Frank, dude." Mac's voice sounds disembodied in the darkness of the car, like this is a sketchy radio show they're listening to. "They've been trying to get evidence on him for decades. One day, a long time ago, a man approached me while I was leaving Paddy's and asked me to come down to the precinct with him."

Mac casts a quick glance over to Dennis, to his profile silhouetted in the headlights.

"I thought he was a plainclothes cop, you know? And I was getting arrested. They offered me a detective position instead."

Dennis says nothing. He might not be listening at all. Mac truly couldn't blame him.

"I wanted to tell you, Dennis." Mac shakes his head. "Believe me, I did. But it's like you said in the apartment. You'd be complicit. I'd be putting you at risk."

A sharp, stabbing pang slides through Dennis' chest. _The apartment_. He thinks of the Flyers memorabilia, the bike they never used, his sex tapes. God, why hadn't he thought to throw one or two of them in the suitcase? Why had he been so convinced this was all a prank?

"I wish you were joking," Dennis says softly. "I take back what I said. I won't kill you. Please, Mac, just say that you were joking."

The pain in Dennis’ voice is too much for him confirm their bleak situation, confirm that this is their new, painful reality. Instead, he reaches over to Dennis. In the darkness, his right hand finds Dennis' left and he gently interlaces their fingers.

His heart melts a little with every moment that Dennis doesn't pull away.


	3. Ellicott City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Dennis arrive at their hotel

After more than two hours of driving, Mac pulls up to a hotel, giving a fake name and his own, real credit card at the desk. Dennis has no idea where they are, but if the signage they passed is correct, they're somewhere in Maryland. Up in the hotel room (which is nicer than Dennis expected, even as he reminds himself that Mac is operating on a detective's salary), Mac warns him not to unpack, that Frank could learn of their whereabouts and act to defend himself. Dennis nods politely but the words mean nothing to him. He can't picture Frank as the criminal mastermind Mac is so afraid of. He can only picture Frank reclining on the futon while Charlie holes up in the crevice.

"So where are we going?" Dennis asks, sitting down on the lone queen-sized bed. "I mean, I assume your plan isn't to drive and hotel-hop for the rest of our lives."

"We're going to see my supervisor in Chicago," Mac explains, undressing. "We'll meet with her, have our case reviewed by the OEO, and.. well, it's a little up in the air after that. Whatever witness protection decides for us."

"OEO?"

"The Office of Enforcement Operations," Mac clarifies, tugging on his grey RIOT shirt to wear to bed. "They'll look at our case and determine if we're eligible for the program."

" _If_ we're eligible?" Dennis repeats. "There's a chance we won't be?"

"No—Dennis, relax. Our case is cut and dry. There's no way they'll reject us."

"But there's a chance they _could_."

"Dennis." Mac comes around the bed, taking Dennis firmly by the arms. "It's two weeks and a headache's worth of paperwork, I promise. And we'll be under state protection the entire time we're being reviewed. I know how hard this is for you. Shit, I can't imagine how hard it is. But you have to trust me."

Dennis looks away, because he wants to trust Mac. He wants to relax, reach that point where he isn't thinking about this or anything anymore, and there's only one thing that will get him there.

"Do you want to take the bed?"

"I want us both to take the bed." Dennis closes the space between them, pressing his lips against Mac's.

Mac is too shocked to react at first. From adolescence, he was convinced this would never happen, could never happen. His entering into his professional mission had been the last nail in an already buried coffin; getting involved with Dennis would blow the mission entirely. But wasn't the mission already blown? Wasn't that why they were here?

Dennis pulls away before Mac can react, an intensity in his eyes that Mac's seldom seen before.

"If you love me so much, I want you to prove it," he intones, voice low. "Come to me like a man. Fuck me."

Mac feels his heart drop out of his chest, sure if he only looked down he'd find it on the floor. A full second passes before he's all over Dennis, kissing him clumsily and shoving him down onto the bed, hips finding Dennis', connecting with them, grinding against him fiercely. He's relieved to find Dennis is already hard.

"J-Jesus Christ.." escapes Dennis' lips when the kiss is broken, Mac moving down to suck and nip at his neck as he inches the hem of Dennis' t-shirt up his torso. It's torture to pull away, to tug the garment off over Dennis' head but it's well worth it, and Mac is rewarded with every piece of Dennis' body exposed. He replaces his lips to Dennis' skin, sucking a mark into his chest that makes his love arch off the bed.

"I-I said fuck me, not tease me." The edge of frustration in his voice is precious, inspires Mac to push his love further, but if he's being honest, he wants this just as badly. He fumbles to get their boxers off while Dennis lays there, rendered seemingly helpless with want.

The sight of him, laid out, so beautiful, vulnerable, naked, makes Mac pause. Their lives are at risk. They're in more danger than Dennis could ever imagine. These are the circumstances of their first time together, of the experience Mac has dreamed of for decades.

"Mac," Dennis whines, tone softer. "Baby boy, please. _Please_..."

Mac leans down for another kiss. He'd say it's not ideal, but he is still with Dennis, after all.

He rolls his hips forward, feeling Dennis' slight wince through his lips as he enters him. It's not the first dick Dennis has taken, probably not the biggest, either, but Mac knows it's far from painless either way. He presses into Dennis completely, pulling away just enough to look into his eyes.

When he finally moves inside of Dennis, it's even grander than he's imagined. Dennis is warm and tight and the most darling throaty moans escape him with every thrust. Mac leans down again, kissing his love's neck once before working on a mark to match the one on his chest.

"J-Jesus, Mac, fuck me like a man," Dennis antagonises weakly. "Harder. F-fuck me harder!"

Mac obliges. It's probably not wise for Dennis to be screaming his name like that while they're essentially on the lam, but Mac's not stopping him.

Dennis comes first, muscles clenching almost painfully around Mac, who follows him seconds later. They collapse, panting, too spent for several minutes to move or speak.

Dennis finds his voice first. "I believe you."

"What?"

"About loving me." He presses a kiss to the side of Mac's face, is quiet, then, "And I love you, too."

Mac smiles, the exhaustion of the day finally weighing on him. For a moment, it doesn't matter how much danger they're in. It doesn't matter that they could be killed in this hotel room before they ever see sunrise.

For a moment before he fall asleep, Mac is simply happy.


	4. Hazy Cosmic Jive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Dennis hit the road (again)

Dennis wakes slowly the next morning, a dull headache tugging at the edges of his consciousness. It strikes him as odd. He knows he didn't drink enough the night before to trigger a hangover. Which, in itself, strikes him as odd. For almost five full seconds, he contemplates the catalyst for last night's sobriety before it hits him, and suddenly he can account for the itchy sheets around his body that do not belong to him, the warm weight of Mac settled on top of him.

Mac...

Slowly, carefully, Dennis works through Mac's confessions—what he remembers, anyway. Mac was his family now. In a leap of faith made while he still trusted Mac to be kidding, Dennis had changed the structure of his life irrevocably, severed every tie to who he was.

If he shut his eyes, he could see them: Dee's manicured fingernails ghosting over the gloss of _People_ magazine, Frank perched on a bar stool berating her over a beer. Charlie emerging from the basement reeking of blood and formaldehyde. They'd engage in a raucous debate over proper uses for embalming fluid, whether or not it had any place in a rat basher's tool belt, bar regulars popping in and out to request more of their usual.

And yet, as picturesque as the fantasy is, Dennis knows there's no place for Mac in it. No place except miles away, alone, in a hotel room just like this one, more concerned with Dennis' safety than his own.

Dennis turns his head, placing the softest of kisses to the skin of Mac's neck. Hasn't Mac been his family all along?

\--

When Dennis wakes up for the second time (immediately annoyed he'd been lulled back to sleep at all), it's to the smell of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a white plastic tin beside him. He worries momentarily about the wisdom of cereal in bed until his eyes catch on the styrofoam cup on the bedside table. Sitting up and bringing the cup to his lips, he realizes it's soy milk, that the cereal is dry. Mac knows him so well, knows of his hatred for dairy and soggy cereal.

"Eat up, babe," Mac calls from across the room. He's stood in front of their suitcase, already halfway dressed, picking out a top to go with his ubiquitous indigo pants. "Another big day of driving today. I tried to scoop up all the Cinnamon Toast Crunch packets that I could, but that shit goes fast."

Dennis smiles, because even if his love is some marvelous double agent, he's still a klepto-manic child at heart.

"Did you get some Fruit Loops, too?"

"Of course, dude."

Dennis smiles so broadly he has to bite his lip to contain himself. He pours the soy milk into his cereal finally and eats quickly, almost excited.

\--

In the car, Mac reveals his other acquisition: a cooler full of continental grape juice cartons. Dennis grins, too thrilled to complain that grape juice can't go on cereal. He also notes that Mac managed to snag some CDs and bites back some rude comment about how archaic their car must be for it to take CDs once he realizes they're almost exclusively Bowie. They get through two full iterations of _Ziggy Stardust_ before "Starman" fades out, then starts up again on its own.

"Did you hit 'repeat'?"

"No, it's my phone." Dennis shuts the CD player off as he retrieves it.

"Your phone?! Dennis, why the hell would you bring your phone?"

"Why would I not bring my phone?"

Mac sighs, pulling off to the side of the road. It's his own error in judgement, he reminds himself. He should have been clearer, should have outlined the risks...

"So do I answer it?"

"Who is it?"

"I don't know." Dennis shows him the phone's screen as the car comes to a stop. "It's an unlisted number."

Mac frowns but nods, and Dennis hits the speaker as he answers.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Dennis." Frank's voice fills the car's silence. "I'd suggest you and Mac turn around now."


	5. Gravy Boat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac and Dennis get a phone call

Dennis says nothing, his own heartbeat in his ears drowning out the stagnant silence.

"Dennis," Frank's voice sounds again. "I said, turn the car around."

Dennis looks to Mac with wide, imploring eyes and Mac twirls his wrist in the international signal for 'keep it going.'

"Frank, what, uh..." He coughs anxiously, forces it to sound close to a laugh. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talkin' about it's pushin' 1:30 and we haven't seen you in the bar all day," Frank explains, tone uncommonly even. "I had Charlie go over your apartment, he says the place is empty. So what gives? You and Mac, where the hell are you?"

"Mac is—" Dennis stops, watches Mac fiercely shaking his head in his peripheral. "—uh, I don't know where Mac is. He stepped out last night, I didn't see him come home. He wasn't there when I woke up."

"And where are you now?"

Mac starts making the international signal for 'wrap it up.'

"I am in Wawa, goddamnit," Dennis snaps, affecting false outrage. "I am trying to decide what kind of sandwich to get because _apparently_ there is a time limit on when steak and egg sandwiches are served in this establishment. Is that okay? Is that fucking alright with you?!"

A beat, then, "Yeah! Yeah, fine. Just get over here."

"Alright."

"And call me if you find Mac, alright?"

"Yeah, got it. Whatever."

Dennis hangs up and takes a breath to relax, voice shrinking in an instant. "Was that okay?"

"Perfect. You gotta give me your phone, though."

Dennis obliges. "Why?"

"Gotta remove the battery," Mac says, doing just that. "Can't give Frank anything on our persons to trace."

"But.." Dennis watches the screen fade to black, gripped with something akin to claustrophobia. "What if.. if something happens?"

"I've got a burner. A few." He sets the disassembled phone back in Dennis' hand. "Charlie, too. I've got his number and he's got mine. If anything happens, he'll keep us in the know."

"Charlie is part of this?!"

"He's not trusted with much." Mac puts the car back in gear, gets back on the road. "He barely understands the mission. But Frank trusts him. I had to take advantage of that."

Several minutes pass in silence, Mac wondering with mounting anxiety why Dennis refuses to put Bowie back on.

"I can't believe you kept all this from me."

Mac sighs. "I didn't want to." He averts his gaze then replaces it reluctantly back to the road. "I always knew you'd be an asset to the team."

"You—? Wait, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying, I've been suggesting bringing you in at annual meetings for like six years now," Mac explains. "But it's an enormous risk, dude. And if Frank had caught on to you while I wasn't aware of it?"

Mac doesn't finish his statement, just lets the horror of Dennis being caught without his guidance wash over him.

"I couldn't implicate you," he says finally, softly. "I couldn't.. force you down with me. You had to stay innocent."

He steals a glance at Dennis' face, watching him think it over. But Dennis says nothing, only catches Mac's hand as it rests on the console, interlacing their fingers silently.


End file.
